London: The Italian pair of Fabio Fognini and Simone Bolelli, the first pair from that country to qualify for the year-ender ATP Finals, were not off to the best of debuts though on Sunday.

In Sunday’s opener, the Italians went down 6-7, 6-3, 9-11 in the super tiebreaker against home lad Jamie Murray and John Peers of Australia. “There was no pressure on us. We both knew what exactly we needed to do out there. We had our chances, but we did not take these,” Fognini told Gulf News.

“But then that is sport. Our first match in this tournament and we were good out there. But in matches like these anything can happen. It’s a point here or a point there, so we’ve got to just take it and stay confident for the remainder of the competition,” he added.

“We have two more matches to play in the round-robin and we can stay confident and turn things around,” he added.

Their historic moment on court as the only Italians so far will go a long way in motivating the nation’s tennis players. “It’s a good feeling to have for Italy. We being here is going to be good for parents, kids and Italian tennis overall,” chipped in Bolelli.

Meanwhile, uneasy calm prevailed in London in the light of the terror attack in Paris. “It’s not your usual sort of Sunday. We are all so sad with what has happened in Paris. It is just a question of a few people who do not like this idea of peace in the world,” Basheer Khan, a long-time resident of Oxford, said during a conversation on the way to the O2 Arena.

And that’s where the attention of the tennis world will be, at least for the next few days as the top eight players and pairs seek to end the season on a high.

One cannot but help notice the dominant ones in men’s tennis. For the 12th consecutive season, the year-end No. 1 in the Emirates ATP Rankings has been held by one of three players — Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal. Federer leads the lot with five (2004 to 2007 and the 2009), Djokovic has four (2011, 2012, 2014 and 2015) and Nadal has three (2008, 2010 and 2013).

The other interesting thing is that no other trio in the history of the Emirates ATP Rankings (since 1973) has held No. 1 for 12 years.

For the first time since 1996 all eight players in the season finale have won at least ten career ATP World Tour titles. While Federer has 88 titles against his name, Nadal follows with 67 and Djokovic with 58 — for a total of 213 between the three of them. The number of titles from No. 4 Murray (35), David Ferrer (26), Tomas Berdych (12), Stan Wawrinka (11) and Nishikori (10) adds up to 94 — just six more than what Federer has won so far.